Home where 4 UI students were killed to be demolished, property given to university

The King Road home in Moscow where four University of Idaho students were stabbed to death will be demolished.

The property is being given to the university.

“This is a healing step and removes the physical structure where the crime that shook our community was committed,” according to an email sent Friday from UI President Scott Green to university students and employees. “Demolition also removes efforts to further sensationalize the crime scene. We are evaluating options where students may be involved in the future development of the property.”

The email said the owner of the King Road house offered the home to the university, which the school accepted.

UI spokeswoman Jodi Walker said the intent from both parties was for the home to be removed. Walker said the university hopes to demolish the home in the coming days or weeks.

The home’s windows are boarded up, and a fence was placed around the property, which Walker said was done by the university and the previous homeowner.

UI seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington, were killed Nov. 13 at the home just off campus. Mogen, Goncalves and Kernodle lived at the residence with two other women who were unharmed and not involved in the crime.

Bryan Kohberger, a former Washington State University graduate student, was arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary. He is in the Latah County Jail.

Green also wrote that a university committee, which includes students, is starting to create a memorial for the four slain students inside a healing garden somewhere on the Moscow campus. The exact location has not been identified.

Walker said UI classes, such as the College of Art and Architecture, could take the garden design on as a class project.

“While the memorial will be a focal point of a garden, the garden will also be a place of remembrance of other students we have lost and a place of healing for those left behind,” the email said.

Scholarships in memory of Kernodle, Chapin and Mogen have already been established, and the university is working with the Goncalves family on one. The endowed scholarships, funded by Vandals Supporting Vandals, will help future students at the school.

“Sometimes it is hard to see beyond this tragedy,” Green wrote. “But the selfless acts, the deep engagement and loving support of our entire Vandal Family reminds me that there is so much good in the world. We will never forget Xana, Ethan, Madison and Kaylee, and I will do everything in my power to protect their dignity and respect their memory.”